Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 1 Peter 3:8 ESV
To have this unity that this speaks of, we must be in
agreement, in harmony, and in union with one another. On a spiritual level,
this comes from us first of all being united with Christ by faith in him. And,
this faith is God-given and divinely persuaded, so it submits to God and to his
will for our lives, it repents of sin, and it walks in obedience to Christ’s
commands.
So, the unity is first with God and with his will and his
ways, and then it can be with one another who are also united with God through
God-given faith in Jesus Christ, which submits to Christ as Lord and to his
will for our lives.
In the Church
So, in the church, this is the kind of unity that should be
talked about and that should be put into practice. But, is it? Not always. In
fact, it is not the norm these days, it would appear, on a large scale.
So, is unity then not being spoken about? Oh yes, it is!! On
a huge scale!! But, it is not unity with Jesus Christ, and with his divine
character and will for our lives. It is not unity with his mind, with his
humility, with his tender heart, with his sympathy or with his love he has for
each one of us.
It is unity with man, instead, and with man-made religion,
and even the blending of truth and lies, and the blending of various religious
beliefs, too. It is unity with business models and with business marketing
schemes. And, it is unity of mind with the teachings of men which sound good
and which tickle itching ears, whether they are supported biblically or not.
And, this is the unity which is being stressed, pushed and
even forced within today’s modern institutional market-driven churches. And, it
is a precursor to the one-world religion of the beast (of Revelation). And,
scripture is being used as a tool to pressure people into this unity, and it is
being used, too, to discipline or to scold or to make an example of those who
do not unite with the marketing schemes of these institutional churches
(businesses).
The Fall-Out
The fall-out from this type of unity, which is largely being
promoted in today’s institutional churches here in America, although not in
every church, is disastrous, and it is on a huge scale!!
For, if we unite with men in their
marketing schemes and in their institutional religion, and in what is a blend
of truth and lies, and which is based on men’s thinking, and not on the whole
counsel of God, then we have a breakdown of everything instituted of God.
We have a distortion and a dilution of the gospel of Jesus
Christ which is then turned into a social gospel of men so that it will easily
convert into the one-world religion, too. For, it offends no one, for it
confronts no one, and it requires nothing of anyone in the way of submission,
obedience, repentance or surrender to God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ)
and the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, it rejects the whole counsel of God, and the true
gospel of our salvation, and thus it rejects all who hold to the true gospel
and those who are sharing the whole counsel of God, too. And, it turns others
against the true gospel by calling it works-based salvation, and it turns them
against those who are teaching the true gospel, too. And, it tries to persuade
those who are teaching the truth to stop sharing the truth, and to compromise
with the world so as to be in unity with all people.
So, going along with this is also a breakdown of morals,
values, families, marriages, standards, purity, honesty, truth, and everything
instituted of God. For, this is the goal. For this distortion of truth, and this
blending of lies and truth, and this compromising of God’s commands, and this
unity with man over unity with God is all Satan’s plan for leading us all into
the rule of the beast and his one world government and one world religion.
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days,let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
1 Peter 3:10-12 ESV
But, God has a different plan for his church than what Satan
has, and what the flesh of man has. His plan is for us to surrender our lives
to him, to submit ourselves to his will and purposes, to forsake our lives of
living for sin and self, and to walk in his ways and in his truth (Rom. 12:1-2;
Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 4:17-24; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Jn. 1:5-9).
He makes no compromises with the flesh or with Satan. He
demands that we walk in obedience to his commands, too, and that we walk in
agreement with the Spirit of God, and that we no longer walk in accord with
what our sinful flesh desires, IF we want to have eternal life with HIM (Lu.
9:23-25; Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; Gal. 5:16-21; Gal. 6:7-8; Eph. 5:3-6).
He commands that we not tell lies, especially that we not
tell lies about his gospel which then gives people a false hope of eternal life
with God, and which then sends them straight to hell, not to God’s heaven.
He says we are to turn away from evil, not that we are to
consider ourselves saved by God’s grace and therefore our sins no longer matter
to God. Sin is no longer to be our master, but God is to be our only Lord. So,
we shouldn’t be living in sin any longer, but we should be living by the
Spirit, doing the will of God, and walking in obedience to what his Word
teaches that we must do, including putting off what it says we must not do.
True or False Unity
So, we need to understand here that the unity that we are to
have with one another has to first and foremost be unity with God – with Jesus
Christ in his mind, which is pure, honest, decent, moral, upright and godly.
So, if we are being pressured or strong-armed or shamed into
any other kind of unity, even if it is disguised as unity with God, then we are
to reject it. We are to say “NO!” to any unity message which does not have God’s
righteousness, purity and holiness at the very core of it all.
So, when you are told that you need to unite with the body
of Christ in whatever way the church leadership instructs, check first of all
to make sure that unity is with God and with what his Word teaches. Make sure
that what you are being asked to do is what God requires of you, not what man requires,
for many people are being led astray and are being led into false beliefs and
into false submissions to church leaders because they are being shamed into by
the misuse of God’s Word.
And, make sure the teaching you are uniting with is also
founded in the Word of God in the context of the whole of the New Testament and
the whole counsel of God and not in select scriptures pulled out of context to
build a theology that is acceptable to the flesh of man.
For, we are all going to reap what we sow. If we sow to the
flesh, from the flesh we are going to reap destruction (corruption, decay,
death). But, if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap
eternal life (Gal. 6:7-8).
It’s All You
Lyrics by Tosin Iyawo
Ogaga & Sue Love
Music by Sue Love @
Original Works
Vocals by Tosin Iyawo
Ogaga
May 31, 2019
You are the reason I want to dance.
You are the reason I want to sing.
You are the reason, expressing myself,
I serve You in all the ways You lead me.
You are the reason my heart gives You praise.
You are the reason that I am alive.
I bring out Your best moves
Just so I do embrace You;
Sing out loud as You lead just to please You.
Let myself follow You. I don’t care who watches me.
All I want to do is to make You smile.
Let every fiber of me bring You praise.
Your love has lifted my feet to dance.
Your faithfulness leaves me singing for joy.
You, Jesus, are the reason, it’s all You.
Your grace gives me life.
*full lyrics used by
permission of the lyricists
Tosin singing:
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